Helmut Schmidt
|1namedata = Hans-Dietrich Genscher Egon Franke |term_start = 16 May 1974 |term_end = 1 October 1982 |office1 = Federal Minister of Finance |chancellor1 = Willy Brandt |predecessor1 = Karl Schiller |successor1 = Hans Apel |term_start1 = 7 July 1972 |term_end1 = 16 May 1974 |office2 = Federal Minister for Economics |chancellor2 = Willy Brandt |predecessor2 = Karl Schiller |successor2 = Hans Friderichs |term_start2 = 7 July 1972 |term_end2 = 15 December 1972 |office3 = Federal Minister of Defence |chancellor3 = Willy Brandt |term_start3 = 22 October 1969 |term_end3 = 7 July 1972 |predecessor3 = Gerhard Schröder |successor3 = Georg Leber |office4 = Leader of the SDP Group in the Bundestag |predecessor4 = Fritz Erler |successor4 = Herbert Wehner |deputy4 = Egon Franke Martin Hirsch Ernst Schellenberg |term_start4 = 14 March 1967 |term_end4 = 22 October 1969 |office5 = Member of the Bundestag for Hamburg-Bergedorf |term_start5 = 20 October 1969 |term_end5 = 18 February 1987 |predecessor5 = Nikolaus Jürgensen |successor5 = Rolf Niese |office8 = Member of the Bundestag for Hamburg-Nord II |term_start8 = 15 October 1957 |term_end8 = 17 October 1965 |predecessor8 = Willy Max Rademacher |successor8 = Rolf Meinecke |office6 = Member of the Bundestag for Hamburg |term_start6 = 19 Ocrober 1965 |term_end6 = 19 Ocrober 1969 |constituency6= Party-list proportional representation |term_start7 = 6 October 1953 |term_end7 = 6 October 1957 |constituency7= Party-list proportional representation |office9 = Senator of the Interior of Hamburg |1blankname9 = |1namedata9 = Paul Nevermann Herbert Weichmann |term_start9 = 13 December 1961 |term_end9 = 14 December 1965 |predecessor9 = Wilhelm Kröger |successor9 = Heinz Ruhau |birth_name = Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt |birth_date = |birth_place = Hamburg, Weimar Republic |death_date = }} |death_place = Hamburg, Germany |resting_place= Ohlsdorf Cemetery |spouse = Loki Glaser |partner = Ruth Loah |children = 2 |alma_mater = University of Hamburg |death_cause = Complications from peripheral artery disease | module = |branch= |serviceyears= 1937–1945 |rank=Oberleutnant (d.R.) |unit=1st Panzer Division |commands= |battles=Second World War *Eastern Front **Operation Barbarossa **Siege of Leningrad *Western Front **Battle of the Bulge **Ardennes Offensive |awards= Iron Cross 2nd Class |relations= |signature = }} }} Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt ( ; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) from 1974 to 1982. Before becoming Chancellor, he had served as Minister of Defence (1969–1972) and as Minister of Finance (1972–1974). In the latter role he gained credit for his financial policies. He had also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting Foreign Minister. As Chancellor, he focused on international affairs, seeking "political unification of Europe in partnership with the United States". He was an energetic diplomat who sought European co-operation and international economic co-ordination. He was re-elected chancellor in 1976 and 1980, but his coalition fell apart in 1982 with the switch by his coalition allies, the Free Democratic Party. He retired from Parliament in 1986, after clashing with the SPD's left wing, who opposed him on defence and economic issues. In 1986 he was a leading proponent of European monetary union and a European Central Bank. Background, family, early life and education Helmut Schmidt was born as the eldest of two sons of teachers Ludovica Koch (10 November 1890 – 29 November 1968) and Gustav Ludwig Schmidt (18 April 1888 – 26 March 1981) in Barmbek, a rough working-class district of Hamburg, in 1918. Schmidt studied at Hamburg Lichtwark School, graduating in 1937. Schmidt's father was born the biological son of a German Jewish banker, Ludwig Gumpel, and a Christian waitress, Friederike Wenzel, and then covertly adopted, although this was kept a family secret for many years. This was confirmed publicly by Schmidt in 1984, after Valéry Giscard d'Estaing revealed the fact to journalists, apparently with Schmidt's assent. Schmidt himself was a non-practising Lutheran. Schmidt was a group leader (Scharführer) in the Hitler Youth organization until 1936, when he was demoted and sent on leave because of his anti-Nazi views. "Helmut Schmidt has died, aged 96", The Economist, 10 November 2015. However, newly accessible documents from 1942 praise his "Impeccable national-socialist Nazi behaviour", and in 1944 his superiors mentioned that Schmidt "stands the ground of national-socialist ideology, knowing that he must pass it on". On 27 June 1942, he married his childhood sweetheart Hannelore "Loki" Glaser (3 March 1919 – 21 October 2010). They had two children: Helmut Walter (26 June 1944 – 19 February 1945, died of meningitis), and Susanne (born 8 May 1947), who works in London for Bloomberg Television. Schmidt resumed his education in Hamburg after the war, graduating in economics and political science in 1949. References Category:1918 births Category:2015 deaths Category:Chancellors of Germany